OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The omicron variant continues to tear through the community and hospital workers are calling on all of us to help slow the virus down.
Before December 30, 2021, Douglas County never had more than 1,000 positive covid cases reported in a single day. Since then, we've had seven such days.
The hospital staff that has been on the front lines for nearly two years now are reaching a tipping point.
Dr. Mark Rupp with Nebraska Medicine says not only have they seen an exponential increase in patients at Nebraska Medicine hospitals the last few weeks, but the virus is also circulating throughout the staff, only adding more stress to the employees who he says have been working overtime since the pandemic began.
He is asking the community to be cautious these next couple of weeks and mask up before we are in serious trouble.
"We're over capacity, and we've been operating in that situation now for weeks. So, people do need to understand that. We're just teetering on the edge of truly having some real catastrophic problems. You know, combined with increased illness in the community and increased illness in our healthcare providers," said Dr. Rupp.
He says the vaccine, especially getting your booster shot, continues to be the best protection against the virus and he encourages everyone to get it.
However, the vaccine takes a couple of weeks to kick in, which is why the answer to slowing the spread in the short term is masking and social distancing.
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